By Toby Christie, NASCAR Editor
Roush Fenway Racing’s resurgence has been one of the most surprising stories of the 2016 season, but unfortunately while Trevor Bayne and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. have been succeeding week after week, the team’s veteran leader, Greg Biffle has been left behind recently. Sunday in the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte though, Biffle had his best race of the season and the finishing position reflected it.
The week started off great for Biffle as he recorded his best starting position of the year, with a sixth place effort in qualifying.
However, when the race began Biffle dropped like a rock. When the race restarted after the competition caution at lap 25, Biffle found himself barely inside the top-15. The No. 16 Ford started the race off very tight, but just as the competition caution came out, Biffle reported that the car had begun to free up.
Brian Pattie would call for some adjustments under this pit stop. Biffle would stay inside the top-15 for the rest of the race as Pattie continued to tune the car for the ever-changing track conditions.
With 50 laps to go, Biffle was in position for his first top-10 finish in the last 22 races. However as the event came to a close Biffle slipped to the 11th position. Nevertheless 11th still marks the best finish of the season for Biffle.
According to Biffle, he didn’t have anything else left in the tank at the end of the race.
“That’s all the speed we had,” Biffle explained. “It was a hard-fought battle and I think we’re gaining on it. It’s frustrating that we didn’t get up to the top-five, but at times we could run top-five lap times.”
Biffle was very excited to be closer to the top-10, but he didn’t show any signs of content with not mixing it up for victories.
“It’s a huge amount of progress from where we’ve been, but we clearly have a little ways to go,” Biffle said. “Everybody is working hard and hopefully we’ll get there soon.”
Biffle, who finished 20th in the championship standings last season, now moves to 23rd in the 2016 rankings after his finish on Sunday. If he can build some momentum from here, perhaps Biffle can work his way into Chase contention.
Image: Todd Warshaw/NASCAR via Getty Images
